Your Author Website — Overview
Everything you need to know about your free BookAuth author website — what's included, how it works, and how to make it the hub of your author business.
Every BookAuth author gets a free, dedicated website powered by a modern Astro-based engine. Your author website is automatically populated with your books, bio, and social links, and you can extend it with custom pages, a blog, testimonials, and more.
What You'll Learn
- What's included with your author website
- How the website connects to your BookAuth data
- What features are available by plan
- How your website URL works
What's Included
Your author website comes pre-configured with:
| Feature | Free | Pro | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom subdomain | ✅ yourname.bookauth.com |
✅ | ✅ |
| Custom domain | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ yourdomain.com |
| Book listings | ✅ Auto-populated | ✅ | ✅ |
| Author bio & social links | ✅ Auto-populated | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom pages | ✅ Up to 5 | ✅ Up to 20 | ✅ Unlimited |
| Blog | ✅ Up to 10 posts | ✅ Up to 50 posts | ✅ Unlimited |
| Theme customization | ✅ Basic colors | ✅ Full theming | ✅ Full theming |
| Custom CSS | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Navigation editor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| SEO settings | ✅ Basic | ✅ Full | ✅ Full |
| Content library | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| SSL/HTTPS | ✅ Automatic | ✅ | ✅ |
How It Works
Your author website is a static site generated from your BookAuth data:
- Your books — automatically appear on your website when published
- Your bio — pulled from your Author Profile settings
- Your social links — displayed in the header/footer
- Custom content — pages, blog posts, testimonials that you create
- Real-time sync — changes to your books and profile are reflected on your website
The website is hosted on Cloudflare's global CDN for fast loading anywhere in the world.
Your Website URL
Free & Pro Plans
Your website is accessible at: https://yourname.bookauth.com
The "yourname" portion comes from your author slug, which is derived from your display name. You can view and share this URL from Website > Dashboard.
Business Plan (Custom Domain)
Connect your own domain (e.g., www.sarahmitchell.com):
- Navigate to Website > Domain
- Enter your custom domain
- Follow the DNS configuration instructions
- SSL is automatically provisioned within minutes
Website Dashboard
Navigate to Website > Dashboard from the sidebar to see:
- Quick stats — total pages, blog posts, and visitor count
- Feature cards — quick access to Pages, Blog, Design, Navigation, SEO, and Domain
- External link — click to view your live website in a new tab
Automatic Content
These sections on your website are automatically generated from your BookAuth data:
| Section | Source | Updates When |
|---|---|---|
| Book listings | Your published books | A book is published/updated |
| Author bio | Your profile bio | You edit your profile |
| Social links | Your profile social links | You edit social links |
| Book covers | Your uploaded cover images | You update a cover |
| Series pages | Your series metadata | You create/edit a series |
You don't need to manually update these sections — they sync automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need any technical skills to use the website builder?
A: No. Everything is managed through visual interfaces — no coding required. Custom CSS is available for advanced users on Pro/Business plans.
Q: Can I disable my author website?
A: Yes. Navigate to Website > Dashboard and toggle the "Website Active" setting off. Your URL will show a "Coming Soon" placeholder.
Q: Is my website SEO-friendly?
A: Yes. Your website generates proper HTML meta tags, Open Graph tags, semantic HTML, and is served with fast load times from Cloudflare's CDN.
Q: Can I see analytics for my website?
A: Basic visitor counts are available from the Website Dashboard. Detailed analytics (page views, referrers, popular pages) are available on Pro/Business plans.
Related Articles
- Creating & Managing Pages
- Writing Blog Posts
- Customizing Your Website Theme & Design
- Website Navigation — Headers & Footers
- SEO Settings for Your Author Website
- Connecting a Custom Domain